Family judge goes public to BBC on litigant in person headache

A leading family judge has taken part in a documentary highlighting the difficulties faced by litigants in person as a result of legal aid cuts.

His Honour Judge Stephen Wildblood QC, the most senior family court judge at Bristol Civil Justice Centre, spoke yesterday as part of the BBC’s Inside Out West investigation into the pressures on the family court system.

The judge, who has previously admitted to crying after one particularly challenging case, was careful not to directly criticise the government over its legal aid policy, which is currently under review.

But his appearance in the programme – in addition to his comments – are a further sign that judges would welcome changes to the scope of funding, with 80% of family cases estimated to have at least one party without legal representation.

Asked if the justice system was broken, HHJ Wildblood responded that judges would not allow this to happen, but he added: ‘Whether the overall process is fair, that people are coming to court on their own, is not really for me to say. That is for others to judge.

‘If anyone watching this can imagine themselves in court faced with somebody that they once loved on the other side of the court, supported by a barrister, and they are on their own, then I think the point answers itself. It is very difficult indeed for them.’

The judge stressed the challenges of litigants in person coming into a courtroom full of barristers, experts and other professionals, particularly if they do not speak English as a first language.

With family proceedings not open to the public, HHJ Wildblood has written plays to showcase the reality of life inside the courtroom. Scenes included the judge being shouted at by a father facing losing his children, and a mother with learning disabilities who does not understand what is happening. Both scenarios were based on real life, said HHJ Wildblood.

The Ministry of Justice said it has spent an additional £6.5m since 2015 on increasing the support available to those who represent themselves in court.

The department is due to publish its review of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act by the end of this year, with campaigners hopeful of at least restoring funding for early advice.

I am unsure whether it is a practitioners general experience, but some lawyers have commented that as legal aid is now only available for domestic violence cases, the number of allegations have increased. Believing that some were false and made up to secure funding.

If correct, the unintended consequences will have a far reaching and destructive effect on individuals and families. alike.

WHAT exactly is the Point of Article 6, when clearly MOST ordinary people do NOT have access to Justice ??. It may as well have not been passed inot law. For several reasons ordinary people cannot get Justice. IF they want Justice they have to put THEIR WHOLE LIFE and HOUSE on the line. That is not access to Justice as it should be. COSTS are the Number 1 reason for lack of access to Justice, and I mean Costs recoverable by the winning party. I think we should have a system like France where each Party bear their own Costs and cannot recover 90% of them.

If the judiciary at every level, first instance and appellate, had said after LASPO that the right to test the evidence against you by cross-examination is fundamental and that if you are refused legal aid you have the right to cross-examine in person, and that if that is painful, too bad, by now we would have had something like what they have in the criminal courts where the court appoints a lawyer to cross-examine in d.v. allegations where the Defendant is unrepresented; and the appalling breach or Article 6 which now stains our jurisprudence would have been reversed.

Oh dear, if the Judiciary had not been so keen to hammer Solicitors fees over the last few decades, aided by their former Bretheren taking up high level posts in Government (Falconer, Hoon Et. Al.) we might not have been in this mess...

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